Vachagan the Pious

Vachagan the Pious is the model Christian king of Caucasian Albania and the most celebrated figure of its sacred history. Movses Dasxurantsi devotes much of his first book to Vachagan's restoration of the faith after a lapse into paganism: he tore down idols, cut the sacred trees, broke the covens of sorcerers and diviners, and had their children educated as Christians, while gathering and enshrining the relics of the martyrs, including those of Grigoris. About 488 he summoned the Council of Aguen, whose canons remain a prime source for Albanian church and social order. A distinct folk-romance cycle grew around him, in which the king, disguised, is won over and instructed by the wise commoner Anahit; sources differ on how much of this legend belongs to the early Tale of Vačʿagan and how much to its nineteenth-century literary reworking.

Domains

• kingship
• piety
• anti idolatry

Powers

• throws down the idols and sorcerers of Albania
• convenes the Council of Aguen

Relations

• spouse: AnahitIn the folk romance the king weds the wise peasant Anahit.Ghazaros Aghayan, 'Anahit' (1881), literary retelling of the folk cycle of Vačʿagan the Pious of Albania (secondary)

Sources

• Vachagan the Pious, king of Albania (c. 485-523), restored Christianity, suppressed idolatry, tree-worship and sorcery, and convened the law-giving Council of Aguen.: Movses Dasxurantsi, The History of the Caucasian Albanians, Book I.17-26, trans. C.J.F. Dowsett (Oxford University Press, 1961) (primary)
• The pious image of Vachagan is elaborated in the early sixth-century Tale of Vačʿagan and in later folk romance.: A. Hakobyan, 'The Creation of a Pious Image of King Vačʿagan II (r. c. 485-523) of Caucasian Albania in the Tale of Vačʿagan (Early Sixth Century)' (secondary)